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4 Essentials for a Successful Fitness Website

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In this article, Startup Active’s Josh Elliot tells us just how crucial your online presence is and how to use your fitness website to maximize your success, online.

It’s more than likely that this isn’t the first article that you’ve come across that talks about how to create a successful website for your fitness studio. There are hundreds of articles online that focus on this subject.

Many actually provide valuable content with actions to implement and use for your business online, but let’s cut the BS – there isn’t one perfect formula for a successful website.

And if I told you there was, I’d be lying. But there are common features that almost all successful websites have in common.

For example, they all attract quality visitors and keep them there. Attracting good quality visitors who engage with your website boils down to 3 points:

  1. Planning
  2. Presentation
  3. Content

Let’s take a look at how to put these 3 points into place on your fitness business’ website.

You Fitness Website: Goals & Audience

Before you dive head first into your website design, identify your goal and target audience.

Ask yourself what you want from your website. Research and find other examples you like and create a mood board. This helps you visualize a design and make things more real.

Then, identify your target audience. This helps you design around your ideal customer and make your website a much more successful lead generator. On top of that, identify how you want to articulate your studio’s purpose and messaging so that you appeal to this target audience through copywriting.

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So let’s say you run a Yoga class – your website should appeal to that particular crowd, otherwise, they will leave your website and go to one that fits their liking.

Ensure that your color scheme, images, and content are created with your target audience in mind and you will save yourself time and stress in the future.

So, plan your target audience, make a list of keywords that they search for on Google, and plan the design and visuals of your website to suit that of your ideal customer.

If your target audience includes 45+ females who want to be active, don’t build a website with edgy, cool, images of 20 year old ripped females.

7 Seconds to Impress!

Impressive fact: we have a short attention span – 7 seconds in fact.

Not a huge chunk of time, is it? So, it’s crucial to capture website visitors’ attention instantly. Within these vital seconds, you need to make it clear who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.

The best way to do this is to make your homepage crystal clear. This means short and snappy headlines. Don’t be too outside the box or super quirky with your text.

**Check out my episode on Loud Rumor’s GSD Show here, I cover this in a lot more detail**

For instance, there’s no need for Nike to put ‘Fitness clothing brand’ as their homepage headline – we are all aware of what Nike is and does. But for a small fitness business, this isn’t the case.

Don’t just take your own word for it either. Ask an unbiased person to visit your website homepage and give them 7 seconds to determine what your business is and does. No cheating!

If they fail to do this – you need to make your homepage clearer.

Engaging Fitness Website CTAs

A CTA (call-to-action) consists of an image or line of text that prompts your visitors to take a certain action. This includes things like signing up for a newsletter, clicking through to another page, booking a free class, etc..

CTAs are essential for higher converting websites. In fact, one of the most common reasons that some websites have very few conversions is due to lack of strong CTAs.

Don’t forget, 90% of website visitors aren’t ready to purchase the first time they land on your page. To overcome this issue, offer visitors a low barrier offer to begin with – like a free session or eBook. You can then nurture them into a paying customer through your email funnels and retargeting ads.

Mobile Friendly Design

Another impressive fact (I promise this is the last one!) … We now browse the Internet on our smartphones more than we do on desktop computers and laptops combined. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But as technology evolves with this, your business should too.

With this being said, optimizing your website for mobile should be high up on your list of priorities. Responsive web design ensures that no matter what device someone uses, your website delivers content in the most effective way. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your site is optimized:

If your website is in WordPress, then this is really simple. WordPress themes already have basic mobile optimization built in. But if your website is custom designed, custom mobile design may be necessary, too.

Desktop websites are awkward on mobile devices if they aren’t optimized.  This makes it difficult to navigate menus, click links and find your way around.

Final Thought

Almost all fitness businesses have a website. Plus, with entry level websites now being as cheap as chips, it’s hard to imagine a reason for a company of any size not to have one.

But, as I mentioned earlier in the post, don’t dive in head first. A successful website for your fitness studio requires time and patience.

Do your research, find examples you love, pin down your target audience, have strong CTAs and clear messaging, and you’re on the right track.

Remember, there is no such thing as a perfect formula for a website, but following the above tips will point your online business strategy in the right direction for success.

Loud Rumor
Loud Rumor

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